**+ Recorded Live: 10/31/92 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater; Irvine, CA [Track is fucked!]***+ From the "Live" Mother '93 Single / Music Video release. [Track is fucked!]

"It's too fucking hot for a shirt! This is Snakes Of Christ!" This show was recorded during the same tour (lets say about a month after) as the "Power Of The Dark Side" CD that I just wrote about. Luckily this sounds a lot better than the other one. There's some crackling, a lot of close-up crowd noise during the quiet spots and a bit of insanity here and there... but fortunately they fixed that distortion problem from the previous shows. This is a damn fine intro set, and if you're into Danzig's Live performances then there's really no reason to keep you from getting this provided you've got some extra cash. They played a few songs they don't normally play (Left Hand Black, for instance) and the sound, while not great, is acceptable and loud during both vocals and instruments.

I don't know what the fuck happened with the last two tracks. Apparently the guy who "mastered" this Bootleg either fucked up or thought that it would be a funny joke to speed up the sound on 'em? Or maybe this "company" RTW didn't think there was enough room on the CD so these two tracks had to become smaller files, who fuckin' knows. Does it work that way? I don't know. It's not chipmunk sound or anything, but halfway there... and rendered totally worthless. Perhaps this Bootleg company just wanted their CD to finish as the time 51:50. That's cool at least, but I don't think so. Maybe they thought How The Gods Kill lasted too long. They sure as shit though must have been insane to fuck with shit this way. IDIOTS!

Strange that they note on the CD back cover "Intro / Come To Getcha", just like Power Of The Dark Side. Sure, POTDS had problems with the last set, but this one is pretty much the solution to that problem, so why the inclusion of the two famous tracks only to distort them? Guess we'll never fuckin' know... right?

An interesting Bootleg I got here from "Metal Crash", bought it when I was probably fifteen and just found it to be killer! I've seen way worse Bootlegs in terms of quality, spelling errors, incorrect song titles (some of 'em just guess - I'll show you what I mean later with that)... but this one has to be one of the very Best out there! First off, take a look at that cover. That is one badass shot that they used! (Now, take a look at Glenn's 'final nail in the bootleg coffin' cover for "Live On The Black Hand Side", yeah, what's with the huge dirty looking hand? Who fuckin' designed that!? Uhg!) They got a clear inside tray with a cool group photo underneath, a picture disc, and a f'n eight page booklet w/ pics! Okay, so they spelt his name wrong... Eerie Von's got two E's and Glenn's got two N's, I guess it could be an honest mistake. All songs listed are correct except for "Come To Getcha" which is actually Brand New God but this Bootleg was released some four months before 4p so that's understandable.

I fucking LOVE this set piece! It was the most badass shit EVUR!

The first two tracks are listed as being recorded Live in the USA in 1993. How The Gods Kill was actually recorded during Danzig's most famous Live Date on Halloween in Irvine Meadows, California in 1992. Around this time they were working on their one and only EP to date, Thrall-Demonsweatlive, and compiled a few different video recordings of their song Mother to make a Music Video titled Mother '93 [Watch the MUSIC VIDEO]. They canned in audience recordings over their original song and set it to the video, and the results were absolutely explosive! The second track on this Bootleg is that recording. Their performance of HTGK from Irvine '92 has to be one of the best I've heard. Aside from watching the official Music Video [Uhhh, watch the MUSIC VIDEO] for the track, this Live performance is my favorite. [Note: Yahoo's got better quality, but the vid is CUT so here's the YTube one with teh boobies.]

The next six tracks, 3-8, recorded in not LA California, but rather The Palace Theater in Hollywood in 1989 are the real treasures found on this disc. This recording came a year before Lucifuge was released and before they start Am I Demon the band does this strange introduction that develops into the Her Black Wings riff before falling back and settling into the named track. These six tracks are stupendous quality, not only audio-wise but also in terms of their electric performances. John is shredding, Glenn is top form, Chuck is f'n going off and Eerie's fingers are bleeding! It's really cool to hear Not Of This World and especially Invocation on a Live CD. These fuckers WENT OFF and luckily it was captured on tape and preserved, because this is one show that when you listen to it, you're really going to wish you were there!

And then there's the next nine tracks from Buffalo, New York in 1994. Man, does the sound quality on this one suck. Wait, don't get me wrong, I've heard worse, a LOT worse than this actually... but compared to the first half of this Bootleg, this next set is pretty weak. If it were on its own, and you hadn't actually listened to the previous eight tracks, it probably wouldn't sound as bad (you know what I'm saying?). Hey, at least Now the disc feels like an actual Bootleg, right? There may have been problems with the set-up that day though, as there's a bit more squealing amp distortion than usual. So maybe their grips needed to get their shit together. Danzig's set list flows though, and it's cool to hear Brand New God then Snakes Of Christ then It's Coming Down back to back to back like that. Glenn definitely had a plan with that set list.

Simply put, a great fuckin' photo.

Despite the muffled sound of this last part, the show is energetic and the crowd is still as wild as ever. You can hear a lot of people talking to eachother durin HTGK so I wonder where the camera and/or recorder was located. I don't think Glenn is moving too much during this song, but now and then the distortion still hits hard. This set isn't their best performance, nor their best sounding, but its got a few moments of greatness. Maybe it's because they were playing right before Metallica at the time and all the roadies were fucked up. The band sounded great, but the situation was pure shite. All in all I'd say that this Bootleg CD is on par and even better than some of the Official releases. There's some classic shit here, and a great almost-shitty sounding show to end it all. Recommended.

* Remixed by J. G. Thirlwell** Remixed by Joseph Bishara*** Taken from the Danzig 5 sessions.

As bad as Danzig 5: BlackAciDevil is, especially when compared to Glenn's previous works, at least the music that he himself produced on that album isn't as horrid as these stupid-named Remixes are. The "Rust Mix" does its best job of covering Glenn's voice in distorted layers of shit until you can't even hear him. Some people have complained about this on albums 6 and onward, but on 5 he's loud and clear! Was this Remix a foreshadowing of things (or complaints) to come? The "Trust Mix" is essentially the "Rust Mix" but without the vocals at all! I guess covering 'em up wasn't enough. Heh. J.G.Thirlwell may have a somewhat impressive resume, and I own a few other CD's that he's done Remix work on, but this shit is uninspired and tired.

Despite the lack of vocals on the "Must Mix" (aside from one yell of "Sacrifice"), this seems to be the only track that the guy gave a fuck about. It feels like it could be in a Metroid game, sounds really nothing like the title track, and is weird enough to be considered OK. Joseph Bishara's one entry here sounds like the mutated child of the only good Thirlwell track and Danzig's far superior Original Version [Watch the MUSIC VIDEO]. This is the other OK track on this Single. If in fact this single consisted of the Original Version, the "Must Mix" and the "Martyr Mix" it would probably be a pretty decent release. Seeing as how Bishara did some work on one of the Mortal Kombat sequels and Heavy Metal: FAKK 2, I would have liked if he had another track on this to show off what else he could do.

This is no EP. It's a Single. This is the original release and not the Reissue with three bonus remix tracks. I have no desire to pick up the Reissue as even owning this dics displeases the hell out of me. The Reissue's cover art is actually well done, using the full picture that in this case has been blown up from eyebrows to chin and looks like total shit of a cover art job. The back of this atrocity looks like someone just straight ripped off an old NIN remix cd. I expect that kind of lazy shit from Trent and his art guys, but at least they sometimes have interesting backgrounds. This just looks like blurry, scratchy purple-ish trash. For shame. And the coverart isn't even a folded piece of paper either, it's just a straight double-sided insert job where the inner art is what's on the back cover, without the tracklist or other wording. Avoid!

I've always loved Danzig's song CantSpeak [watch the MUSIC VIDEO]. I didn't hate the slight change in direction that Glenn went with 4p. I embraced it and still to this day really feel that 4p and his two previous albums are his most accomplished works. If the man had remained on this technical level and perhaps had been more open to his bandmate's artistic influences, Danzig 5 would more than likely had been celebrated triumphantly and treasured by his fans. Unfortunately we all know what really happened. I dig the sound of this track and yeah, I even think it rocks when all that distorted shit kicks in around the middle mark. The music video's curious visuals and cool lightning effects amplify this songs strange feel and gives it another dimension. If only the Video had been included in this CD package instead of that Radio Edit track. Or perhaps even discard the Album Version and put Let It Be Captured as the secondary track. CantSpeak's instrumental is after all LIBC played backwards, so that would have been at least interesting.

The Live version of Twist of Cain here takes what can be a sometimes underwhelming & repetitive song and gives it a fresh mind-tingling vibe. John's guitar work here is insane, as he changes things up and inserts little bits of awesomeness all over the place for seconds at a time. The distortion is right on and it's got a gritty feeling that improves upon the original version. It's not technically perfect since it is a raw performance, but the band puts all of their effort into getting this one rockin'! On the second Live track here, Dirty Black Summer, Glenn seems to be really having fun with it. Sounds like he needs to drink a little water though near the end of it. It should be NOTED that these two tracks were recorded during that same concert in '94, yet were not included on the Black Hand CD Set from '01. That's a pity, but I guess it gives Danzig fans good reason to go out and find this Single. Even if it's for Twist of Cain alone. This is a worthwhile, yet imperfect Single.

I don't know what's up with the Edit on the title track or the second track on the CantSpeak single, but they're both just under twenty seconds shorter and neither of the songs are profane so I'm just going to safely assume that they're both Radio Edits to make them both just under the four minute mark. As for the title track of this Single, I Don't Mind The Pain [watch the MUSIC VIDEO, which looks like Danzig stepped on the set of a Jean Rollin film using Dario Argento's old Imbibition Technicolor film stock (kinda)] is an interesting choice for the fourth single. I wouldn't have minded Sadistikal in its place, but this was the tracks destiny I guess (IDMTP is a bit more "catchy"). Hell, they made Little Whip a shirt. The Album Version of Going Down To Die, while a beautiful track, is still just the album version so I'm skipping it.

The real treat on this Single is the live track Bringer Of Death [watch a FAN VIDEO set to the film Masque of Red Death]. The sound is crisp, clear and the energy Glenn and the band have here is simply incredible! They're playing this song fast as fuck, but to perfection. Then they slow it down to just light drumming and Eerie Von's bassline, and Glenn starts whispering, telling the crowd to quiet down for a moment: "Shhhhh! I wanna hear the bones break. Shh! Yeah... I wanna hear another skull crush! Hahaha! HAHAHA!!!" Oh and that laugh he gives after he says that is diabolical let me tell you. I think this live version is even better than the one on the album.

Little Whip starts off, as usual, slowly, but Danzig and Co unleash a furious, blasting power during the finale of the song that you can really get into and feel. These two live tracks are outstanding, and I'm sure that Glenn thought so himself because in 2001 he released six tracks from his '94 live show in Seattle on the Double-Disc Live album "Live On The Black Hand Side". The others from that set are Killer Wolf, Going Down To Die, Stalker Song & Long Way Back From Hell. I find this live version of Bringer Of Death to be better than the one they put on the original album. This Single is only recommended for collectors, as (like I just said) three of the songs have been released on readily available albums and the title track is a shortened Radio Edit. Unless you're really into Radio Edits, or something...

42 seconds of ominous low-drowned tones, light thunder and rain... John Christ's squeeling riff begins as Chuck Biscuit's drums slowly build and creep in... Glenn and Eerie get into it and step (almost) away from the pyre, to commence rocking. So what does Dirty Black Summer [Watch the MUSIC VIDEO] remind you of? Being fifteen years old, having bonfires at the beach and just doin' whatever the hell made you feel good - things you've never done before or were just starting to experience? Perhaps you knew a girl named Summer when this song came out, and (un)fortunately for her she just got a new nickname?

How The Gods Kill, Lucifuge and, when I got would teg hgih, 4p were non-stop in my CD player. I fell in love with 4p, for there was no denying that is just spoke to me. But Lucifuge and HTGK are what I consider to be Danzig's peak, for he, his band and Rick Rubin achieved untouchable perfection with their sound, style and content. That's not to say that I love every song on both of these records. I actually wasn't too fond of Dirty Black Summer, nor was I too much of Do You Wear The Mark, 777, or I'm The One. All four are very listenable tracks and I know that Glenn is proud of I'm the One; they just never really stuck with me, though over time I've come to appreciate them a bit more.

Bodies [Watch the MUSIC VIDEO] gives Eerie Von another time to shine, one not found in this Single's title track, and I'm glad that it's been included here since it is the best track out of the three presented. Danzig recorded WDHNN at every session from something like SamHain up until, well hell it's been so long now that he could damn well still be recording it. Even though it never seems to get added to the album, it's played at damn-near every single live show and a version is occasionally released as a B-Side somewhere. The version on this album is also on The Lost Tracks Of Danzig 2-Disc set that came out in 2007. There's also a version of the song from the first album's session.

So back to me (sorry), what do I think of this release? While I really like Bodies, none of these three tracks are particularly my favorites from the band. The Digipak looks great, but can easily scuff so be careful. I would say that this CD is for hardcore collectors only, because the one special extra track can be found all over the place, and the title & second track are album versions. All in all it's a bit weak, but I found it in the shop brand new for a lowish price back in 1995/6 so I'm pleased that I own it. You can probably find versions of this Single online for a low price still (it may not be a Digipak), but I would say just buy Danzig III and the Lost Tracks, unless you're a completest.

*EDIT* And Unholy Hell does that Bodies video kick major arse!! Truly, the Dirty Black Summer video does nothin' for me... check em' out and let me know what you think.

January 17, 2011

This isn't actually Vampire Beavis, but what the fuck that's just how the drawing came out. Done with Pencil, Paper, Colored Pencil and for the first time in a long, long, long fucking time, I shed some blood for this one. I found it worthy, I guess. Hah. Bloodshed is always cool, hehehehhehehe...

January 16, 2011

Here's a little sketch that I started last year before I dropped off and tuned out to anything productive. Perhaps it was the twelve hour days, strange hours and a snowstorm that kept me from it, but I said to hell with it all and gave the thing some depth. I did this whole piece pretty much in the dark, and all of it while drinking heavily, so any shoddy color work and/or quality control is to be (as usual) expected. Like always this one is untitled but I named the file SkullFucked (2010/2011) just for fun.

Hope ya like it. I'm off to my chili cheese fries after downing this here rum. It's gonna be a rough monday. So yeah, my first work of 2011... kinda. Yeah, and it's another skull. ATTENTION: Since I just got my new scanner a short while back I will be re-uploading some of the artwork I have previously posted. The BitchKiller stuff is too big for the scanner (I did 'em mini-poster size), so those will stay grey-ish. But the blacks and colors of the other works will be able to be seen clearer. When I get around to it.

January 8, 2011

Don't exactly know what came over me to draw this, but I had just watched Michele Soavi's Stage Fright (aka Deleria) and Lamberto Bava's Photos of Gloria (aka Delirum) back to back and just got a strange idea to combine the two. I've always loved that iconic Owl Head, and back when I first saw Delirium the full eyball-face scene left me stunned! I never forgot that image...

So as a fan of Italian horror, I really had no choice but to show my love for two great directors. Let me know what you think of this now six year old drawing, if you wish.

January 7, 2011

Here's another one from 'back in the day', 1995 to be precise. Take a look at that sweet as beard would ya?! Hell to the fuck yeahz. The background was actually blank for a couple years, and then one day I took a look at this drawing while baked and it just hit me like a cloud of smoke.

January 3, 2011

Horror bloggers were pissed, calling this an utter shitfest and proclaiming it the WURST THING EVUR! After second viewings, wouldn't you know, some hated it even more. How could they do this to our beloved Freddy? Everyone's favorite teen murdering, wise cracking jokester. How dare they go and make him Sinister again! Wait... that's not such a bad thing, innit? Freddy has always been my favorite slasher and A Nightmare on Elm Street is 10/10 always being in my top ten films of all time. But let's face the fuckin' facts here... Freddy's Dead was a major low point for the character. You really can't fuck things up worse than they did there. This is the way I look at things: Freddy was at his most true during the original, New Nightmare and to a slightly lesser extent, Part 3. Sure, I dig Fred when he puts those sunglasses on at the beach and calls Ricky a little meatball, that's all well and good. But I like my Freddy to be mean, nasty and a sick fucker. This remake did that.

I'm not going to go off the deep end and praise this film as being some major accomplishment for the horror genre, no. But do I feel that it's a bit under-appreciated, and that a few of the more harsh comments that have been slung its way are undeserved? You're damn right I do. I can see all the faults, and I can address the concerns of many as I too feel dissapointment in some areas. Just a few: The glove coming out of the bathtub between Nancy's legs. It had to be done for the sake of the remake, everyone knows it. Did it have the same effect as the original? Fuck no. If it hadn't been included in the remake, would people have complained? I sure think so. That's the trouble with this exciting scene of the past, the filmmakers this time around are screwed either way. Sad they couldn't think of a way to improve the original scene, and decided to just carbon copy it. After all, they didn't have Freddy's tongue coming out of a phone and that didn't matter much. In fact, when Freddy says that he's "Nancy's boyfriend now" in the remake, it's a lot more personal. And I'll get to that in a second.

They did this blurry edges effect for quite a bit of the dream sequence stuff and that irritated me. The dream isn't supposed to be noticeable (and some of it wasn't), but I guess this is happening when it's all micro-naps or on the edge of waking or falling asleep. Still, I don't like it. A lot of the children from their preschool are now dead and Nancy finds out about this online. That was annoying [it's not even off screen death, it's like off screen death hearsay], but I can see why they did it (for the storyline). At least they had the sense to put Marcus Yeon's vlog up there to give this part of the movie a moment of interest, if you can call it that. I at least like Yoo better than fuckin' Joy Division boy up there with his little awkward pouts and shit. What in the fuck that was the same character from Jennifer's Body. [Side note: Kinda like how Trent from the F13 remake was the exact same dude from the first Transformers film - Bay's influence, much? Yeah, and Aaron Yoo has now been killed by both Freddy and Jason (though when Jason killed him it was very Michael Myers and in the NoES remake he didn't so much die off screen as... in screen? Muhwaha! I'm rambling.)] So parts of it sucked, but let's take a moment to see what really works.

Freddy is a sick motherfucker, for one. That's what works. His relationship with Nancy here is taken to extreme, complicated and downright vile complexities. He may have loved kids, but he fuckin' loved Nancy the mostest! It's not made clear what he had "done" to the other children, or exactly how "far" he had gone with Nancy, but it is alluded to that he did bad things with her that he didn't do with the others. When she's taken from him he comes back from hell to get her back, much like Hellboy would have done for Liz. Though, I can't really see that big mitt making scratch marks on the young lass, simply pulverizing. And even then it's a fucked up thought to begin with. One of my Japanese followers is drawing up a Manga of this as.. of.. now! So he comes back for His Little Nancy and to get to her, what does he do? He kills all of her former schoolmates in grizzly fashion to get her attention, making sure that he leaves her for last, that she'll never wake up from a coma, and he'll be forever the man of her dreams. Spoiler, it happens!

And remember how they couldn't do justice to that bathtub scene? It was something not precisely in the scene itself, but rather the follow-up. In the original Nancy was taken underwater for a short while and she struggled. That's a nice scene (especially if you get the unedited version), but here they took it in a different direction and gave deformed birth to my very favorite line of the film: Nancy is walking through the snow onto her old preschool, and Freddy approaches her from behind. This is the point where Freddy is making his move to his now grown-up little princess. Formal introductions and the whole four knives. They exchange words and then he leans in, now holding her hand with his knived glove as she squirms, and he says softly in her ear: "You smell different." And he says it in this really creepy yet utterly sexy way, and it's not only disturbing as Fuck but I'm tellin' ya I felt butterflies. Sure, I was high at the time, but I smiled. Couldn't help it. Watch the clip HERE! I like the more disturbing angle they finally had the balls to go with. It made Freddy definitely darker than all previous versions, just based on the fact that they come out and get past alluding to it. This motherfucker surfs with E.T. and Firestarter came afterwards.

Even though I wouldn't call the script a work of genius (far from it), I feel they and JEH did a really great job on Freddy's demeanor and his words of choice. He spoke most of the time as if he were speaking to children. From "This won't hurt one little bit!", to "3...2...1... Ready or not, here I come." I feel that, on top of the other sick shit he eventually lays out, they really drove the point home and had a vision on how they wanted Freddy to appear here. The whole "wet dream" line late in the film made me somewhat cringe, since he was doing so well without the puns, but I can see how it fits now that his girl is "of age" and ready for Freddy. Also of note, his line about how the brain continues to function after death and now he's got more time to play. That was a rather brilliant contribution to this hated film, I'd say. Stuff like that gets under the skin of certain people, especially if they've seen that old Tales From the Crypt episode where the dude can feel his own autopsy. Uhg. That's an AFTERMATH I wouldn't wish for... huwaha! So I say forgive the movie for its shitty faults and look to the core of the matter. Freddy's Back!

Oh yeah, and one more thing. I didn't at all have a thing for Rooney Mara before this. During the production of the film and even during my initial viewing of, I found her somewhat plain and couldn't understand the attraction. After my second viewing and subsequent brainwashing, I know what it is: Those eyes. Perhaps she's got her mother's eyes. Well, I know that her character Nancy does after what transpired during the finale. ;)

My words are my own and as of posted from their creation forward I hereby claim originality to them. Pictures may prove to be promotional items and are the sole possessions of their respectful owners and/or companies. I do not sell, nor do I buy. I only rent, so therefore, nothing I own is truly mine.